Visiting Fellows Engagement

After a career spent in research or teaching positions at major universities around the globe, including in New Zealand, Japan, America and the UK, Professor Aurelia George Mulgan officially retired in 2009. But the academic world wasn’t yet ready to let this Japan expert go.

George Mulgan has, since 2005, been awarded several three-year Australian Research Council Discovery Project grants for work on Japanese political economy and the geopolitical and security implications of Japan’s trade agreements. Two of these grants have come since her retirement, a powerful indicator of the esteem in which she is held by those in academic and government arenas.

Rear Admiral James Goldrick has experienced sea service around the globe. He commanded HMAS ships Cessnock and Sydney (twice) and headed up the Australian Surface Task Group, the multinational maritime interception force in the Persian Gulf in 2002, and Australia’s inter-agency Border Protection Command from 2006-2008. Other commands included the Australian Defence Force Academy (twice – 2003-2006 and 2011-2012), and the Australian Defence College (2008-2011).

With research interests that currently include naval and maritime strategic issues and the development of naval capabilities in the Indo-Pacific, Goldrick has also, over several decades, developed a deep...

The relationship between China and other major economies has been under the spotlight for the last decade. Less focus has been offered to India, which may well have more influence on the global balance over the coming decade.

“India is very different to China, it is a Commonwealth nation and a democracy and a very strong partner of the USA,” Dr Ashok Sharma, Visiting Fellow at UNSW explains. “It is aligned with America on security and defence. It is behind China economically but over the next 20 to 30 years it will become bigger than China. We don’t hear as much about this because India is not a security concern.”

When he read the 2004 report of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s Maritime Strategy, a report that broadly endorsed the positions of the 2000 Defence White Paper, Dr John Reeve found that it quoted his own testimony extensively in justifying its findings. He was satisfied to know that his work had made a real difference.

Reeve’s principal area of academic interest is that of early modern European international relations and warfare (c.16th to 18th centuries), focussing on the relationship between diplomacy and strategy, the interaction of domestic politics and foreign policies, great power rivalry and the financing of warfare.